Sunday, 30 September 2012

GOTHAM CENTRAL: BOOK FOUR

It is interesting that
this fourth volume of Gotham Central is titled Corrigan,
because in most of this collection of stories the corrupt Crime Scene
investigator is a central figure, especially in the climatic one, but
the actual main arc of the story is the partnership between Renee
Montoya and Crispus Allen. Although Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker get
joint billing as the writers, in reality, the bulk of the book is
Rucka's and as we shall see the overall tone and final effect is most
definitely his. And although he is the titular mainstay, Corrigan is,
in effect, the catalyst for the conflicts which will challenge both
the detectives. The biggest contrast is the sense that Allen, the
family man, has something to fall back on, while Montoya, a lesbian
who can't seem to come to grips with being loved by her girlfriend,
doesn't. It is on this contrast that the stories flow together, and
ultimately, give the climax its power.

The book starts with a
short, 'Nature', written by Rucka and drawn by Steve Lieber, which is
there to establish Corrigan's centrality as a villain. It is less
successful than the rest of the book, mostly because it deals with
the supernatural. The concept of Gotham Central is a police
procedural in a city where super villains and super heroes,
particularly the Batman, dominate. Thus is requires the reader's
suspension of disbelief to credit that such beings exist, but also
requires that the delineation be clear. Here that boundary is crossed
and the story falls flat.

'Dead Robin' is a
three-parter written by Rucka and Brubaker, in which Gotham has
outlawed costumed heroes (a la Watchmen), and someone is
killing young boys and dressing them as Robin. It's a kind of old
fashioned parlour mystery, whose most interesting facet is the return
of the Batman to close the case. The relationship of Romy Chandler,
who shoots The Batman and loses her gun, with Nate Patton is put
under strain, while the backstory to Allen and Montoya's
partnership—that she had to compromise with Corrigan to save his
career, is restated as a subplot. The art, by Kano and Stefano
Guadiano is good, but oddly uneven, sometimes looking cartoony in the midst of
otherwise dark images, as if it's been redrawn. This story sets up a coda, another short
written by Rucka and drawn by Lieber, called 'Sunday Bloody Sunday',
which hammers home the contrasts and the dependencies of Allen and
Montoya, as Gotham goes into meltdown as part of DC's Infinite
Crisis, and Allen tries to get across the city and back to his
family. The story works well, and it's payoff is powerful, but it's
not until you reach the end of the final chapters of the book that
you get its full impact.

That story is 'Corrigan
II', in which the police close in on Montoya's nemesis, and tragedy
results. Rucka again scripts, and he's at his best when dealing with
loss—something that won't surprise those who've read, for example,
Whiteout. He doesn't need to bring everything to conclusion,
and he knows that such conclusions are not simple, even though that
has traditionally been the staple of the contained comic story.
Apparently, this story also sets the stage for a different sort of
sequel, which I won't give away, but it would not have to it for it
to work on the series' own terms. Again there are moments when Kano
and Guadiano's art seems slighter—sometimes reminding me of Guy
Davis, more stylized and less norish than at other times. But
overall, the effect is fine, and the softer touch suits Rucka's
style: Brubaker might be more noirish in the sense of there being
little hope, but Rucka, because he has the touch of sentimental
faith, maybe even more effective when life, inevitably, deals from
the bottom of the deck.

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